The 63rd Hunger Games
by timelordeliza
Summary: It's the 63rd Hunger Games, years before Katniss and Peeta's. Clover Brunhild from District 11 is selected as a tribute and must fight to survive.
1. The Reaping

*One*

I feel nervous. Today's the day. Today's the Reaping, where the Tributes will be chosen for the Hunger Games.

I brush the snarls out of my shoulder-length black hair. Then I wash my face and put on my faded pink skirt and white blouse. my special occasion shoes are torn, but they're the best I have. My twin brother, Seed, is also wearing his best clothes. He and I look like most people from our part of District 11: dark skin and hair, strong from working in the orchards and fields. Here, everybody works, even the children.

Aunt Finch watches us. We've lived with her since our parents died from illness when we were six, and she's acted as a mother to us. She's too old to be in the Reaping itself, but will come anyway, to comfort us with her presence.

We walk into town around noon. Banners bearing the Capitol emblem hang from every visible surface. Cameramen film from rooftops and out of windows. A huge crowd is here. The teenagers standing in their age groups fill most of the space; adults and children stand off to the sides. Peacekeepers, the soldiers who enforce the laws, watch from guard-towers and stand around the youth.

Seed and I go stand with the other fifteen-year-olds near the middle. Most of them look as if they're about to throw up. I'm sure I do, too. I look to the stage constructed in front of the Justice building. Chairs are set up for the past Hunger Games victors, the mayor, and Fuchsia Goldbud, the lady who hosts the Reaping in our District every year.

The mayor stands up to the microphone to give his usual speech about our history: North America became smaller as the seas overflowed onto the land until there weren't enough resources for everyone. Wars started, and much was destroyed. Out of the ruins rose the nation of Panem, a beautiful Capitol sounded by thirteen Districts. Eventually, the Districts became ungrateful of everything the Capitol gave them. The Districts rebelled and started the Dark Days. In the end, the Capitol could not be beaten. They overtook twelve Districts and eliminated the thirteenth. The Hunger Games were created so that the Districts would not forget.

The Hunger Games are punishment for us. A boy and a girl between the ages twelve and eighteen would be sent from each District to an outdoor arena to fight to the death with the nation watching. We all hate it, but the evil Capitol people treat it like it's a holiday, something fun, or patriotic. I know all of that about the Districts being ungrateful isn't true. Today, we're starving and abused.

Fuchsia Goldbud stands as the mayor returns to his seat. She looks like a freak, but compared to most people from the Capitol, she's pretty normal. She has wild black hair and black lipstick to match, a fluffy purple feather boa, purple eyelashes, and tall black heels. She lacks the surgical alterations most Capitol people have.

In her strange, high-pitched accent, she says, "Welcome, all! Happy Hunger Games! May the odds be _ever_ in your favor!"

The woman smiles warmly at the grim faces in the crowd. She clicks over in her heels to the two glass Reaping balls filled with thousands of names on slips of paper. First she draws a girl's name. The crowd is still.

Fuchsia reads the name on the slip she chose. "Clover Brunhild."

That's my name.


	2. Goodbyes

Heads turn towards me as I walk stiffly up to the stage. Nobody volunteers to take my place. I don't expect them to. I wouldn't either, if I were them.

I am now a tribute in the sixty-third Hunger Games.

Fuchsia calls out the male tribute, a tall seventeen-year-old named Sprout Silverring. We shake hands on her instruction, and then are herded into the Justice Building by Peacekeepers. One of them orders me to stay in the dusty room they take me to.

My loved ones (just Seed, Aunt Finch, and my friend Skye) are allowed a short time to say goodbye. We hug and cry. I know I will probably never see them again. There will be bigger, stronger tributes, especially the Careers, tributes from District 1, 2 and 4. They're the Districts that are wealthier and better fed. They almost love the Games and begin training for them when they're little, although it's technically illegal. I could be taken down easily by a twelve-year-old Career, that's how dangerous they are.

Sprout and I are driven in a black car (I've never been in one) out of the District, past the guard-towers and barbed-wire fences, the trees and fields of grain. We board the train that will take us to the Capitol. It runs two-hundred and fifty miles per hour. It'll arrive by tomorrow.

On the train I eat the biggest and most magnificent meal I've ever seen, a meal that probably costs more than my house: Roast chicken, gravy, potatoes, salads, rolls, punch, vegetables, fruit, and stuffing, and for dessert, pie and chocolate cake. I go to bed sick but full.


	3. The Parade

The next day we arrive into the Capitol as I'm eating a muffin for breakfast. Bright-colored buildings tower into the sky past the clouds. Cars race back and forth in the streets. Strange Capitol people with dyed skin, tattoos, and layers of makeup point excitedly as the train pulls in.

* * *

I'm in the Remake Center. The Remake Center is where the tributes to to look camera-worthy for the Tribute Parade later,which will be broadcast on national television. The better I look, the easier it will be to get sponsors. My mentor, a past victor named Apple Cloudhaze, told me that sponsors are rich Capitol citizens who donate money to buy supplies for their favorite tribute when they're in the Games.

The prep team has cut my hair into a short, boyish style they say is called a pixie. They cover my face with makeup. They're able to make scars from years of working in the orchard seem to disappear completely. Lovinia, the tiny woman who is my stylist, shows me the costume I will wear to represent my District:baggy overalls with a green shirt to go underneath, boots, and a leafy head-wreath. It's ugly and unoriginal. I have to remind myself that I'm here to fight, not have a beauty contest.

* * *

In the Tribute Parade, we ride in our chariot pulled by two brown horses behind all of the other District's chariots except for 12's. We do a circle around the city square as the watching crowd cheers. The chariots stop in front of President Snow's mansion, where he gives a speech I don't pay attention to. After he's done, the horses pull us into the Training Center, where we will live until the Games.

I fall asleep in my new bed immediately. I wake the next day and am sent to training.


	4. Training

Training is in a room filled with weapons, obstacle courses, and instructors. A man named Italus gathers all of us tributes together and warns us not to fight each other. Then we go our separate ways.

I'm not sure where to start. I don't think I'm skilled with weapons. I've used a machete before at work, but I don't think that counts me as being skilled. I can climb and I'm strong, both useful things in the arena.

I go over to the fire starting station. The woman who teaches there shows me how to start a fire with flint and steel. She leaves me on my own to practice.

A smallish girl with reddish brown hair sits down next to me. She looks about thirteen. I try to ignore her.

"Hi," she says.

'Hi!?' We're about to fight to the death and she says 'hi?' I continue to ignore her.

"I'm Ash." She says. "And you're Clover?"

I nod. I hadn't even bothered to learn any of the other tribute's names besides Sprout.

Ash stays with me for the rest of the day, and for the next two days of training, too. I sincerely hope that she doesn't want to be my ally in the arena. Her District is 5, the power plant District. The people there don't learn to work until they're eighteen. She's noisy, can't run fast, and isn't very good at any of the stations we come to. I try to seem noncommittal to her, but she can't take a hint. The Careers don't pay much attention to me, which I am grateful for. I learn most of their names. The girl and boy from 1 are Star and Glow and they're deadly, even though they have such wimpy names. Star has amazing aim with a bow. The monstrous boy from 2 is Axle; I'm not sure what the girls name is, but she is excellent with a sword. Pherick is the boy from 4, and again, I don't know the girl's name.


End file.
